Trompetti with Chicken and Wild Mushrooms

I've been dying to blog all week but I have been so busy at work that I really haven't had a minute. I've had quite a good cooking week and I don't want a huge backlog to write up (plus Blondini keeps pestering me about blogging - I think he wants to see his photos online). So I'll start with Sunday night's dinner, although there is stuff to write about the weekend too, but it will keep.

On Sunday I saw a box of maitake mushrooms in Waitrose and as we don't see them often we decided to do something with 'shrooms. So we also bought shiitake mushrooms and some plain closed cap mushrooms or whatever they are called. I threw some things together and voila...

Trompetti with Chicken and Wild Mushrooms
(serves 2)

1 large/2 small chicken breasts, cut into small pieces
Approx 100g shiitake mushrooms
Approx 100g maitake mushrooms (or any mushrooms of your choice)
5 or 6 closed cap mushrooms
A handful of dried porcini mushrooms
1 clove garlic
2 shallots
2-3 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
A little plain flour
250g trompetti or other pasta (this quantity is for fresh pasta, adjust for dried)

Start by putting the dried mushrooms into a small bowl and covering with boiling water to rehydrate them.

Next, roll the chicken pieces in the flour, well-seasoned, and then fry. Remove and keep aside.

Finely chop the shallots and fry, together with the crushed garlic. When the shallots are translucent, add all the chopped fresh mushrooms. Turn the heat down to quite low, and keep cooking, and after a few minutes, squeeze the water out of the porcini mushrooms and add to the frying pan. Keep the mushroomy water aside. After around five minutes, add the mushroom water and the balsamic vinegar to the mushrooms, put the chicken pieces back in the pan, and make sure everything is covered in the liquid. Cover and cook for around 15-20 minutes. After this, taste and season - you may also want to add some more vinegar at this stage. (If you are cooking dried pasta you will probably want to start that at this point.) Remove the lid and let the liquid reduce. When you are nearly ready, cook the fresh pasta (it will only take 2-3 minutes). Drain the pasta and add the mushrooms and chicken. Mmm... shroomily good.